A good finish to a weird week…

The week was a bit on the weird side. On Wednesday I did an hour of hill repeats then did the Haymarket “B” ride (“A” ride was canceled for some gay mountain biking thing). I figured I didn’t want to blow up a “B” group ride so I would just follow, well that didn’t work. I was riding 2nd wheel up the first climb when “Super Tri Guy” attacks. No big deal, I jumped over to his wheel. Then the sleeveless fucker looks back like he is Lance Armstrong and attacks. Well that pissed me off, so I shifted up and let out a nice up hill sprint, leaving tri guy with his other group riding buddies. I relaxed after a few minutes and got back in the group. I was leading the group into the sprint point and figured I would just try and hold off any sprints by powering thru. That’s when I look back and see this tiny girl on my wheel. I’m 5’5” and she had to have been a foot shorter and a whole 80 lbs. Yeah she won Mt Washington Hill climb overall. So I just finished out the ride by keeping Lance JR from taking any sprint points. I think he just likes to beat up on the B’s every week, sad.
Rode my Fixie for an hour on Thursday, then on Friday I built my race bike back up and remembered I was having a problem with my shifting. So I decided to ride over to Haymarket Bikes to see if they could fix me up. I was making a joke about how I was going to be SOL if I flatted on my ride since I was riding my race tires. Well I cut the F’ing thing and had to call for a ride. Last time I went out on race wheel before a race I flatted so I guess I’ve learn my lesson.

Hagerstown
I went into Hagerstown with zero expectations, just another race. I have been having bad knee issues ever since the Turkey Hill crash, and some days are really bad. Friday was a bad day but luckily Haymarket Physical therapy was there to fix me up. Originally I was going to do Mt. Nebo but since the promoter still owes me money from Ephrata and won’t return my emails, I’m boycotting his races. So after getting talked into doing Hagerstown by Vic, who says he is going to work for me so I can win it. I thinking ok just another crit with me getting crashed out.
Well the day started out great, watching Sara from cyclelife ride away from the field with an elite woman to take the women’s 3 jersey, oh and although she didn’t do the finish salute that we talked about pre-race she did manage to do the Arsenio Hall fist pump (I got it on video).
Talking pre-race with my teammates and Lance Lacy, I wanted to set Lance up to go with Vic from the gun. Figuring Vic could set up a nice break and I could bridge to it. Well all pre race plans went out the window and found my self bridging to almost every break but feeling good. Nothing was sticking and with 3 to go so I rode up behind Vic and told him I was there. He was supposed to lead me out to the sprint if I didn’t make a break. Vic work his way through the field so well that there was no way in hell I could follow him. I had to keep going on the out side just to get back to him. 2 laps to go and Vic goes to the front and started hammering it, he did his job for as long as he could and had the field strung out. When he was finished a guy took a flyer with Lance pulling me up to him. It must have been around 500m to go when they both died leaving me next in line. I just said now is my shot and hoped Lance would get on my wheel. I never sprinted or even stood up; I just put my nose down and started to crank it up. About 200 to go and I see a lead out or some type of train coming up on my left then they started fading back. That’s when I knew I had a shot so I just kept grinding and held off the sprinters by about half a wheel. It was by far my most gratifying win to date, and not just because it was a championship race. Amazing how one race can change your whole outlook on the season.

Well I’m ready for my break and will be going up to Cape Cod for a week next week for a little R&R. Then when I get back some serious TT work. I want to break into 52 minutes and I know I’m faster than I was at the first church creek and I was told that it was a bad day for times so I have my fingers crossed. Hopefully I can grab 2 jerseys this year… I only thought I was going to get the TT one but I’m not bitching about getting the crit jersey.